The temple town of Lord Venkateswara turned into a sea of humanity on Friday with lakhs of devotees from various parts of the country swarming the shrine to witness the auspicious ‘Garuda Seva’ festival, observed on the fifth day of the Brahmotsavams.
Several devotees preferred reaching the town along both the trekking routes, which recorded an incessant flow of pilgrims since Thursday morning.
The Mada streets remained packed by evening. Fearing non-availability of space, devotees started congregating all along the open-top galleries encircling the shrine since morning. Several religious and cultural troupes entertained the devotees singing bhajans. The air was rent with the chorus chanting by devotees and was further electrified with the mass rendition of ‘Govinda Namam’, which was audiocast through more than 100 amplifiers along the Mada streets.
Food packets, butter milk and water sachets were made available to devotees not only around the temple complex but also at both the Vaikuntam queue complexes, besides to those waiting in the stretched-out darshan lines as well as the PACs.
The police, particularly at the entry and exit points, had a tough time managing the crowd.
Strict enforcement of guidelines as well as traffic regulations atop the entire town saw the devotees entering into heated altercations with the uniformed personnel. But for a couple of incidents of minor nature, the planning by both the TTD as well as the police paid off well with a majority of devotees expressing their satisfaction with the arrangements.
Meanwhile, the processional deity of Lord Malayappa mounted atop the golden bejewelled Garuda vahanam was adorned with very rare and precious jewels like centuries-old Makara kanti, antique Saligrama haram, Lakshmi haram, whose history is rooted deep in the temple legends.
Earlier in the morning, the procession of ‘Mohini avataram’ allured the devout.
